RF's Financial News

Sunday, July 27, 2014

"It's unbelievable how much you
don't know about the game you've been playing all your life." — Mickey
Mantle

For the past several weeks we've
been talking about the global picture – from the mess in the Ukraine to missing
airliners, and from the holocaust in Gaza to the BRICS bank – all focused
around the U.S.’s impending loss of it’s world reserve currency status.Let’s change our focus back to U.S. based
news and events over the past 5 years, and see if there is a discernable pattern:

-The
NSA Originally – they NEVER recorded individual phone
conversations, and now they are logging EVERY single communication made in the
world.

-The
IRS Originally they NEVER targeted anyone, and now we find that
they were instructed to target anyone that disagreed with King Obama. Add to this ‘the miracle of improbability’ –
when Lois Lerner’s hard drive (along with 6 others in the IRS) crashed (all at
the same time) with ZERO data recoverability.
(FYI - the odds of this happening ‘by chance’ have been placed at 1 in
500 Trillion.)

-“If
you like your plan, you can keep your plan." Sorry
Ms. Pelosi. YOU passed the bill, (and because
we’re still bickering about it in the courts) WE still don’t know what’s in it.

-John
Corzine Remember John and MF Global absconding
with $1.3 Billion dollars of investor’s capital. When questioned about the money he said: “I
simply don't know where the money is".
And nobody went to jail.

-GAAP Remember
GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures) – Obama now allows banks to
report their assets per a computer model’s estimated worth, rather than what
the market would really pay for them.

-GDP
calculations In an effort to
make things ‘look better’, an entire host of new things have been added to the value of the new economy – such
as TV re-runs. And the U.S. GDP still
lost 2.9% in the first quarter of 2014.

-QE
1, 2, The Twist, and now QE3 We lived through the failure of QE1,
QE2, and The Twist. All of these escorted in a Zero Interest Rate Policy
that has distorted our economy and our markets for years.

-Labor
Participation Rate While Obama tells us that he has engineered
the greatest and fastest recovery in history – we have LESS people actively in
the job market than we did in 1973.

-Food
Stamps An all-time high, 50 Million people are on food stamps or
related programs.

-EPA
Waging War Never before has a standing President been
actively behind rules created by a ‘Non-Elected Body’ that will put an entire
industry (Coal) out of business.

-Velocity
of Money VOM reflects the health of an economy
because it demonstrates how fast money is changing hands. The higher the velocity – the better the
economy. Our VOM is at 70 year lows, not
seen since World War II.

-Gold
and Silver manipulation At least everyone admitted it, and it made
the news.

-LIBOR
manipulation In what might be the biggest fraud
ever uncovered, we found that LIBOR rates were being manipulated.

The list goes on, but that’s one
heck-of-a-lot of financial insanity for the past 5 years.As an aside: I’m not sure that anyone noticed
but the ‘spring planting season’ in the Ukraine has been fairly dramatically
disrupted.The Ukraine is called ‘the
bread basket’ for a reason – and it is because they normally would supply not
only Ukraine, but also a lot of Europe with wheat. This fall, there is not only a serious possibility
of food shortages, but also shortages in Russian natural gas pipeline in-flows
as well.

All of this brings us to the
FED.I remember saying a full year ago:
“If the FED does not change it’s stance on tapering (or begin a new program of
injecting liquidity) before the summer of 2014, then something major has
changed.” Well, only 3 months remain
from the end of QE3, and they have announced no new plans. You can point to the repos and the foreign
institutions that continue to buy our paper, but that’s not a long term fix and
honestly it removes the façade of the FED being ‘transparent’. If these
elements were to continue, Congress would scream that the FED didn't stop the stimulus
– they just hid it – and that would be an ugly scene.The taper combined with no new programs could
be a final, desperate attempt to show the world that: The U.S. is finished debasing
its currency – and there’s no reason to run to the BRICs Bank.Heck, Ms. Yellen has stated that QE is going
to end, and that rates will be rising sooner rather than later.Of course (in the following sentence) she said
that it’s NOT the FED's job to pop bubbles, and keeping rates low has prevented
troubles in repaying debt loads that would have hurt the economy.

Honestly, everyone that I know has
predicted that the FED will print into eternity, bring on hyperinflation, and an
end to our current financial systems.However, as a way out of this dilemma, I can see Ms. Yellen addressing
Congress with the following fable: “The economy had healed. Our accommodative stance was actually
hindering faster growth, so the Federal Reserve decided to get out of the way
and let market forces take over the recovery. That was going well until [FILL IN THE BLANK]
happened.”The [Fill in the Blank]
could be: (a) a hot war with Russia, (b) a chain reaction of banking failures, (c)
a mass exodus of nations from NATO into the willing arms of the BRICs, or (d)
the ‘WEATHER’.

If Ms. Yellen halts the taper or
even reverses it by announcing some new policy to take over – then things are
back to normal. If Mr. Draghi finds a
way to pervert the EU constitution, and to begin printing money like a mad man
– then things are back to normal.But if
the FED halts QE and rates start to rise, then I have to guess that we're going
to see some form of major event taking place. An event the FED can point to as the cause for
any market crash or economic recession.And all of it occurred – right under our very noses.

The Market...

Small-caps tend to get lot of
attention by traders and investors because of their tendency to outperform
bigger companies over large markets cycles. Many of these small-cap companies tend to
trade with less dollar volume, are highly sensitive to domestic growth
expectations, and can be seen as a good indicator of risk and investing sentiment.I realize that everyone is focused on the
S&P Index, but the reality is that many stocks in the U.S. have been
struggling in 2014, with the small-cap Russell 2000 index being a key indicator
of just how tough it's been. The Russell
2000 has meaningfully underperformed the S&P 500 this year in a shocking
way, even causing it to give back all of its 2013 gains.The movement by the Russell 2000 is nothing
short of being utterly brutal, and came out of nowhere. Investors often equate a narrow rally to one
that is close to the end.The analogy of
using a ‘staircase’ to invest upward, and using the ‘elevator’ to invest
downward is not lost on me.The complete
collapse of the Russell 2000 is a humble reminder that advances can be given
back in a moment's notice – when you least expect it – regardless of asset
class, strategy, or market cap.

As if to add insult to injury, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday announced that it expects the U.S. economy to
grow 1.7 percent in 2014.This is a rate
even SLOWER than it predicted a month ago.U.S. GDP contracted at a 2.9 percent rate in the first three months of 2014
(the sharpest decline in 5 years) - dragged down by a weak housing market, a
slower pace of restocking by businesses, and lower exports.The IMF went on to say that these lower growth
expectations will contribute to continued slack in the labor market for the
next three to four years.The IMF also
warned that an aging U.S. population meant the economy would not be able to
grow above 2 percent in the longer-term without significant reforms, including
tax and immigration changes, more investment in infrastructure and job
training, and the provision of childcare assistance, which could help lure more
Americans back into the workforce.

Using the above as a backdrop, it
feels like things are about to get interesting in ‘market land’.This week we only had one up day, and the
week ended quite red. While in the big
picture, one week’s decline is statistically insignificant, but some ‘internal’
market damage has been done. Combining
abysmal market volume with the performance of the Russell 2000, I’m seeing the
market climbing higher on very low volume and fall ‘like a rock’ on high volume.
In fact, last Friday snapped a streak of
11 green Friday closes. Was that just the market's way of not letting
everyone make profits on a known pattern, or was it something more
significant?

We are (yet again) set up for a nice
pull back.

-Earnings
season is winding down.

-The
Geopolitical scene is bad, and getting worse.

-Our housing
slump continues.

-And
currently, the only reason for this market to hold up is the upcoming mid-term elections.

This week I’m looking for a bit more
market weakness.This market can fall
quite a ways, and still be above some significant support levels.So if you’re playing, please play carefully.

Tips:

This week I would like to show you how to invest for
income.That is to say, make weekly
income (cash in your pocket) – irrespective of how the market moves.One of the best mechanisms to do this is via
‘Credit Spreads’.The credit spread is flexible
and can be used as a non-directional or a directional trade. I use it as a consistent source of income. Typically I look for stocks that don’t have a lot
of price movement.Credit spreads use the
passage of time to generate profits. Often
you don’t have to do much with these trades, but put them on and let them work.And (depending upon how you set the trades
up), it’s one of the few trades where you can make money on at least 2, and
often all 3 of the ways a stock can move (up, down, or sideways).These trades can be set up to generate
weekly, monthly or even multi-month income streams.

So what exactly is a Credit Spread?It involves selling an option, and buying
another option against it.Now, before
your eyes start glazing over, they are very simple to build.Conceptually, if you SELL a ‘Call Credit
Spread’ on a stock – you will always make money if the stock moves sideways, or
down – and you could make money even if the stock moves up.When you SELL a ‘Put Credit Spread’ on a
stock – you will always make money if the stock moves sideways, or up – and you
could make money even if the stock moves down.So the odds are with you with Credit Spreads, and you’re SELLING them –
so cash is hitting your account virtually immediately.As the saying goes: “More homes in the
Hamptons have been built on credit spreads than anything else.”

Below are 3 examples / recommendations of credit spreads for
August.

-The
1st example is a Put Credit Spread on Time Warner (TWX).I would SELL the August $80 PUTS, and BUY the
August $77.50 PUTS as protection.The
entire transaction would net me $0.35 per share – and would expire on the 3rd
Friday in August.Here we are saying
that TWX will stay above $80 / share.It’s currently trading @ $85, with an expected move of $4.50, and a
buyout offer on the table.

-The
2nd example is a Call Credit Spread on the Nasdaq itself.I would SELL the $4,050 CALLS, and BUY the $4,075
CALLS as protection.The entire
transaction would net me $3.40 per share – and would expire in August.Here we are saying that NDX would remain
below $4,050 per share.It’s currently
trading for $3,965, with an expected move of $52, and a downward bias in place.

-The
3rd example is a Put Credit Spread on Devon Energy.I would SELL the August $73.50 PUTS, and BUY
the August $71 PUTS as protection.The
entire transaction would net me $0.20 per share – and would expire in
August.Here we are saying that DVN will
stay above $73.50 / share.It’s
currently trading @ $78, with an expected move of $3.70, and it’s in the ‘hot’
Energy Sector.

TWX
August -80 / +77.5Put Credit Spread (PCS) $0.35,

NDXAugust -4050 / + 4075Call
Credit Spread (CCS)$3.40,

DVNAugust -73.5 / +71Put
Credit Spread (PCS)$0.20

Last week, other than the exercise in stock price
manipulation brought on by Tourbillion Capital Partners’ Jason Karp against
Mannkind Pharmaceuticals, and the earnings miss exhibited by Coca-Cola – the
week went fairly well for us.A lot of
our old guard (FEYE, LNG, AAPL, NUGT) performed nicely, all the while the vast
majority of the earnings plays also did well – including: CMG, BIDU, BIIB,
DECK, FB, FFIV, GILD, ISRG, SBUX, and V.We exited our position in DRTX this week.Ever since we exited our positions in
small-cap stocks (about 2 to 3 weeks ago), I continue to like bonds (TLT) and
am beginning to warm up to oil (USO) and the precious metals – potentially in a
flight to quality.

Expressed
thoughts proffered within the BARRONS REPORT, a Private and free weekly
economic newsletter, are those of noted entrepreneur, professor and author, R.F.
Culbertson, contributing sources and those he interviews. You can learn more and get your free
subscription by visiting: <http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com> .

Please
write to Mr. Culbertson at: <rfc@culbertsons.com> to inform him of any
reproductions, including when and where copy will be reproduced. You may use in
complete form or, if quoting in brief, reference <rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com>.

If
you'd like to view RF's actual stock trades - and see more of his thoughts -
please feel free to sign up as a Twitter follower - "taylorpamm" is the handle.

If
you'd like to see RF in action - teaching people about investing - please feel
free to view the TED talk that he gave on Fearless Investing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Z9I_6ciH0

To
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Views
expressed are provided for information purposes only and should not be
construed in any way as an offer, an endorsement, or inducement to invest and
is not in any way a testimony of, or associated with Mr. Culbertson's other
firms or associations. Mr.
Culbertson and related parties are not registered and licensed brokers. This message may contain information
that is confidential or privileged and is intended only for the individual or
entity named above and does not constitute an offer for or advice about any
alternative investment product. Such advice can only be made when accompanied
by a prospectus or similar offering document. Past performance is not indicative of
future performance. Please make sure to review important disclosures at the end
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Note:
Joining BARRONS REPORT is not an offering for any investment. It represents
only the opinions of RF Culbertson and Associates.

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RESULTS ARE NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. THERE IS RISK OF LOSS AS WELL AS
THE OPPORTUNITY FOR GAIN WHEN INVESTING IN MANAGED FUNDS. WHEN CONSIDERING
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Remember the Blog: <http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/>
Until next week – be safe.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

The term ‘false flag’ is hundreds of
years old and first came about during the naval battles between Spain, England and
France. In those days, they lacked radar
and other sophisticated communications systems to help identify ships. If you were sailing in a convoy, you would normally
have a lookout with a spyglass sitting in the ‘crows nest’ (typically a cloth
basket suspended from the highest mast) looking for other ships and their flags
– telling you to what nation they belonged.

It was back then, that a clever officer
of an attacking flotilla found that by taking down his own country's ‘colors’
(flag), and purposefully flying the flag of the opposing nation – would give
him the added element of surprise. That
way the lookout would be fooled into thinking that the approaching ships were
friendly; thereby allowing them to get considerably closer than if they would have
been truthfully identified. It wasn’t until the attackers started firing,
that the defenders realized the ship was flying a ‘false flag’ – and would
hurry to fire back.

Today, the most common use of the phrase
‘false flag’ describes someone doing an evil deed, and making the evil appear
as if it was perpetrated by the enemy – in order to justify taking action (against
the enemy).

In the past three weeks I have marveled
at the speed at which the world is banding together to bypass the U.S. dollar. The BRIC’s (Brazil, Russia, India & China)
Bank is now in completion, and will NOT use dollars as its medium of exchange. When the world has no choice but to use your
currency for trade, (and the various clearing houses and derivatives are all
set up to facilitate trading in that currency) you become more powerful because
the system is set up cater to your wishes. This is why U.S. sanctions are
often so damaging to other countries.

-IF you
are forced to use U.S. dollars, and

-IF those
U.S. dollars must clear through U.S. dollar based systems that connect to thousands
of banks and institutions around the globe, and

-IF you are
shut off from that ability to exchange dollars, then

-YOU are
in trouble – especially when trying to import food and obtain oil.

Therefore, holding global reserve
currency status is an incredibly powerful weapon, and has the power to bring
most countries ‘in line’. But: "Times,
they are a Changin’”, and from where I sit – much of last week points to U.S.
desperation.The U.S. cannot afford to
lose its global reserve currency status, and everyone knows it. But U.S. banks are in much worse trouble.The idea of a completely separate banking
system (BRIC’s Bank) not being run by the IMF, or the World Bank or the Federal
Reserve System – scares them into retaliation mode. They tried lashing out against the French bank
PNB with a $9 Billion fine for trading with nations we told them were forbidden.And we tried further sanctions against
Russia.Both decisions failed to play
out on the world stage as we had hoped.

In fact, rather than U.S. sanctions
causing Putin to ‘come in line,’ he is forming increasingly stronger alliances
with his BRIC nations.In the past two
weeks Putin has visited and signed reciprocal agreements with Cuba, Argentina
and Brazil. In Cuba he is turning old military bases and ports into a modern,
maritime trading hub.So instead of
bowing to the U.S., Putin is expanding the Eurasian trade zone right here in
our own backyard.Recently Germany
denounced U.S. sanctions – mostly because so many German companies are
currently doing business with Russia.Combining Germany’s technology and precise manufacturing with Russia’s massive
resources forms a Russian-German alliance that makes major, economic sense.

Why do we continue to poke Russia in
the eye with a stick?For the past 25
years, Russia has (a) been a good neighbor to Europe, (b) supplied the Ukraine
natural gas at a discount (allowing them to siphon off even more illegally),
and (c) fought off terrorists.Why did
the U.S. decide to push NATO operations right into Russia’s backyard in Crimea
and Ukraine? Why - because our banksters
see the BRIC's abandoning U.S. policies and our currency.We gambled.We were wrong in thinking that our European NATO allies would force
Russia to abandon their plans to merge with China and others.

To put this into perspective:

-The
BRIC’s contain almost 3 Billion people (10X more than the U.S.), doing over $15
Trillion in GDP (18% of all global trade) and growing. Russia is the single largest country, China
the most populated, and Brazil one of the most resource rich countries on Earth. And, if these countries declare a military
alliance – they dwarf our military.

-The
U.S. is $17 Trillion dollars in debt, with a stagnant to declining
economy. Our unfunded liabilities (medical
and social security) top $100 Trillion. And according to the latest polls, only 10% of
our population trusts our Government.

I’m hearing that the only way out is
to enter a ‘hot war’ with Russia.That
would solve two massive problems: (a) Allow for a shut down of the entire BRIC
Banking / Eurasian trade zone, and (b) give the FED someone to blame for our
economic demise. But, try as we might,
we haven’t been able to suck Putin into a military confrontation.

As soon as the Malaysian airliner
was shot down I thought: “False Flag”. As
expected everyone was blaming everyone else.The Ukrainian Government and the U.S. were condemning Russia, while
Russia was turning blame back the other way. Why would the Russians shoot down a civilian
aircraft? They know that the entire
world would hate them for it, and would turn ‘the court of public opinion’
toward the Ukraine and the U.S. It would
make perfect sense for the Ukrainians to do it, and BLAME the Russian rebels –
putting more pressure on the Russians to be seen as evildoers that need to be
stopped.

Currently – there are many theories
and fingers being pointed:

-Some
say it was the Ukrainians because Putin's own jet was flying that same
trajectory, and maybe they thought they could kill him.

-Some
say it was the separatists mistaking a commercial airliner for a Ukrainian
military supply plane.

-There's
even evidence that the pilot veered off his standard route to purposefully fly directly
over a hotspot.

-The
good news is that Russia has continued to remain co-operative and completely engaged
in global dialogue.

I think this recent statement by
Putin (to the news agency Itar-Tass) truly sums up what is really going on in
the world:“We are implementing a system
of measures that prevent the harassment of countries that do not agree with
some foreign policy decisions made by the United States and their allies."

Stay tuned and watch for ‘False Flags’.

The Market...

These are the times that try men's
souls.On Wednesday the market pushed
itself to this year’s 17th all-time high.But Thursday saw the market drop 165 points
on the news of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and the downing of the Malaysian
airliner in the Ukraine.On Friday, one
of two things happened – either (a) every investor decided that a blown up
civilian airliner in a military hotspot, and a ground invasion of thousands of
homes in Gaza meant nothing; therefore, they decided to buy the dip, OR (b) the
same hand that has pushed this market higher in the face of every economic ill
you can imagine – made it happen once again.I’m personally learning towards ‘Door Number 2’.

Virtually every single indicator
concerning the health of our markets is flashing danger. Reports tell us that the chance of an ‘outlier
event’ preceding a market fall are extremely high. Numbers prove that corporate buybacks and FED
policy have been by far the major influencing factors for this market going
higher.‘Unidentified futures buying’ by
someone with ‘deep pockets’ consistently comes out of the blue to ‘buy the dip’
and rescue the markets.Banks have
virtually created earnings out of thin air by being allowed to mark their
assets to ‘model’ rather than to ‘market’. I wonder, what would cause the market to stop
moving higher?We know that it isn’t:
lousy economic reports, bad housing numbers, declining consumer confidence,
horrific retail sales, a NEGATIVE Q1 GDP report, companies missing earnings,
ground wars, or a downed civilian airliner.

The standard line of thinking is
that as long as Interest rates are this low, investors have no choice but to
buy stocks, since bonds don't pay anything. Yes, that is true, but all investors have seen
‘bubbles’ where stocks have fallen 50% or more. While everyone says: “This time it’s
different.”We all know that: “Bubbles
pop with the right pin.”

As the phrase goes: “Don’t fight the
tape.”Therefore, it’s becoming more and
more likely that buying the dips will be in vogue through the end of the
year.I continue to look for the
ten-year bond to remain below 3.5%.The
U.S. equity markets (in normal times) are simply a discounting mechanism for earnings.As the old investor once said: “Sell the
Bugle, and Buy the War.”What this means
is that, the run-up to a major conflict (anticipation of a war) puts the markets
under pressure, but once the war begins the markets tend to rally in anticipation
of the war’s end. Currently the market
is anticipating an economic recovery; however if the recovery does not gain
momentum, the markets will selloff.

Unfortunately, the more optimistic
the market becomes – the easier it is to disappoint. It is much easier to surprise a market to the
upside, when expectations are muted. So
in addition to my worry over economic growth, housing continues to bother
me.Homebuilding is struggling to regain
momentum due to tight lending conditions, rising mortgage rates, and a lack of
momentum in new household formation. Additionally,
there has been a disturbing decline in the most recent consumer spending
numbers.

Obviously the old quote: “The trend is the trend –
until it’s NOT” – still holds true.I’m
cautiously optimistic.But I’m sitting
in a lot of cash right now.Be safe out
there.

Tips:

For this coming week – we are into earnings
season.A common technique of making
money during earnings season is to (the day before a specific company’s
earnings to be are announced): SELL a weekly Iron Condor (specific to that
company), that is 1.5 to 2 standard deviations (SD) away from the current stock
price.For example: NetFlix (NFLX) has
earnings after the bell on Monday.NFLX
is currently trading about $445 – with a standard deviation of $35.This means that this week, NFLX should move a
maximum of $35 (either higher or lower) than it’s existing $445 stock price.Now multiplying $35 by 1.5 and 2, yields $50
and $75 respectively.Therefore using
the 1.5 SD numbers – the range for NFLX is between: $395 and $495.You could SELL the $390 / $385 - $500 / $505
Iron Condor – netting you almost $0.90 per share.SELLING 20 contracts would net you a little
over $1,750 at the end of the week – providing that NFLX remained LESS than
$500 and MORE than $390.Using the 2SD
numbers – the range for NFLX is between: $375 and $515.You could SELL the $375 / $350 - $515 / $540
Iron Condor – netting you almost $1.20 per share.SELLING 20 contracts would net you
approximately $2,400 at the end of the week – providing that NFLX remained LESS
than $515 and MORE than $375.In
principle – what you’re doing – is taking advantage of NetFlix’s high ‘implied
volatility’ (IV) that proceeds their earnings release (as nobody knows what numbers
the company will report) – and then the immediate IV ‘crush’ that happens after
earnings when the world immediately knows the numbers and has settled on a firm
(new) price per share. Some other
examples for this week are:

CMG
-525 / +522.5 & -660 /
+665 Iron Condor OR

CMG-495 / +475 & -690 / +710Iron Condor

SBUX-74 / +72 & -82 / +84Iron Condor

FFIV-99 / +96 & -112 / +125Iron Condor

WYNN-192.5 / +190 & -210 / +212.5Iron Condor

Last week certainly was an interesting week, and
could foreshadow things to come.Apple (and the pinning play) was obviously a
complete disappointment to me – and I ended up holding some Apple shares as they
head into their earnings announcement on Tuesday of this week.I also did NOT like the action in the IWM (a
small cap index) early last week – so I sold out of most of my small company stocks
before the market’s move downward.We
continue to hold MNKD and DRTX, even though Ms. Yellen (during her testimony to
Congress) did single out social media and bio-tech stocks as being
over-valued.#ThanksJanetYellen.Our other option plays worked out nicely including:AMZN, BITA, BWLD, GOOGL, NUGT, SHPG, and VIPS.I’m currently sitting in an over-sized cash
position – ready to ‘pounce’ upon such earnings plays as:NFLX and CMG on Monday, AAPL and APD on
Tuesday, MMM and FFIV on Wednesday, SBUX on Thursday, and WYNN on Friday – to
name a few.

Expressed
thoughts proffered within the BARRONS REPORT, a Private and free weekly
economic newsletter, are those of noted entrepreneur, professor and author, R.F.
Culbertson, contributing sources and those he interviews. You can learn more and get your free
subscription by visiting: <http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com> .

Please
write to Mr. Culbertson at: <rfc@culbertsons.com> to inform him of any
reproductions, including when and where copy will be reproduced. You may use in
complete form or, if quoting in brief, reference <rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com>.

If
you'd like to view RF's actual stock trades - and see more of his thoughts -
please feel free to sign up as a Twitter follower - "taylorpamm" is the handle.

If
you'd like to see RF in action - teaching people about investing - please feel
free to view the TED talk that he gave on Fearless Investing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Z9I_6ciH0

To
unsubscribe please refer to the bottom of the email.

Views
expressed are provided for information purposes only and should not be
construed in any way as an offer, an endorsement, or inducement to invest and
is not in any way a testimony of, or associated with Mr. Culbertson's other
firms or associations. Mr.
Culbertson and related parties are not registered and licensed brokers. This message may contain information
that is confidential or privileged and is intended only for the individual or
entity named above and does not constitute an offer for or advice about any
alternative investment product. Such advice can only be made when accompanied
by a prospectus or similar offering document. Past performance is not indicative of
future performance. Please make sure to review important disclosures at the end
of each article.

Note:
Joining BARRONS REPORT is not an offering for any investment. It represents
only the opinions of RF Culbertson and Associates.

PAST
RESULTS ARE NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS. THERE IS RISK OF LOSS AS WELL AS
THE OPPORTUNITY FOR GAIN WHEN INVESTING IN MANAGED FUNDS. WHEN CONSIDERING
ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS (INCLUDING HEDGE FUNDS) AN INVESTOR SHOULD CONSIDER
VARIOUS RISKS INCLUDING THE FACT THAT SOME PRODUCTS AND OTHER SPECULATIVE
INVESTMENT PRACTICES MAY INCREASE RISK OF INVESTMENT LOSS; MAY NOT BE SUBJECT
TO THE SAME REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS AS MUTUAL FUNDS, OFTEN CHARGE HIGH FEES,
AND IN MANY CASES THE UNDERLYING INVESTMENTS ARE NOT TRANSPARENT AND ARE KNOWN
ONLY TO THE INVESTMENT MANAGER.

Alternative
investment performance can be volatile. An investor could lose all or a
substantial amount of his or her investment. Often, alternative investment fund
and account managers have total trading authority over their funds or accounts;
the use of a single advisor applying generally similar trading programs could
mean lack of diversification and, consequently, higher risk. There is often no
secondary market for an investor's interest in alternative investments, and
none is expected to develop.

All
material presented herein is believed to be reliable but we cannot attest to its
accuracy. Opinions expressed in these reports may change without prior notice.
Culbertson and/or the staff may or may not have investments in any funds cited
above.

Remember the Blog: <http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/>
Until next week – be safe.

GetAbby.com IVR Solutions

A TRIPLE is only a TRIPLE when you make it to 3rd BASE!

In today’s world, if you can’t achieve having ALL 3 - then you’re just hitting three singles – and NEVER putting everything together – and therefore NEVER putting yourself in ‘scoring’ position! And frankly, if you’re not going to ‘score’ - why be in the game? All 3 of these elements (web avatars, IVR solutions, mobile applications) NEED to work together, and combine in order to significantly reduce customer service costs, while dramatically enhancing the customer experience, and increasing your customer knowledge, retention and let’s not forget – increasing your bottom line.

First base is your speech application. Applications need to recognize voice commands, understand accents, languages, and colloquial enunciations, everyone sees the industry moving in this direction - from buying airline tickets to feeding your Xbox commands - virtually everything needs voice technology. Second base is web interactivity – the ability to ask a web avatar a question – in your own words – in your own language (very similar to speech). The extra element the web provides is instant connectivity to thousands of “friends” receiving and sending status updates - allowing your product to reach a wider audience, cheaper – better - faster.
Third base takes includes your mobile device. Apple has sold over 2 million ipads in 2 months – even though it’s only been released in 9 countries. 5 Billion iPhone apps have been downloaded. AT&T stopped taking orders for the iPhone 4G after being open for 27 HOURS. So if mobile devices are NOT be a part of your strategy, think again. And just do the math – a mobile device application can be written for tens of thousands – and circulated to millions of people – giving you a total cost of ownership in the ‘pennies’ - what other device offers that consistency - scalability – and cost?

Our job at GetAbby is to put you in position to score. We bring it all HOME. We take all three of these sigles, combine them, and allow you to bring it HOME in one application. GetABBY provides the technology that allows you to book airline tickets over the phone, and have the confirmation ticket sent straight to your mobile device, and confirm thru an avatar on the web – where the avatar will present you with more money saving ideas on additional places to stay. We’re there for you, ready to take you past third base – taking it home, however; is up too you to GetABBY.